Author: B. Jill Carroll:   Forward by Akbar S. Ahmed.
ISBN: 13: 978-1-59784-110-8. 

Who Speaks for a Civilization?

Theologian, B. Jill Carroll, a lecturer in Humanities and Religion at Rice University, presents a laudable idea. Dr. Carroll wants to set up a hypothetical dialog between civilizations. On one of her hands is the Muslim world; on her other the rest of humanity. Because of her respect for a very prolific Islamic cleric named Fethullah Gülen, Dr. Carroll would like to promote Gülen as the mouthpiece for Islamic civilization, and place him into topical “dialogues” with philosophers representing the rest of the world, specifically, Confucius, Plato, Kant, Mill, and Sartre. Another goal for A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gülen’s Islamic Ideals and Humanistic Discourse is to place Fethullah Gülen “into a context of the larger humanities.”  Carroll then compares and contrasts her own interpretations of Gülen’s many books, articles, sermons and speeches with near “Cliff Note” versions of each philosopher’s thought. What she discovers in this exercise, unsurprisingly, is that the world is not so far apart on the most basic and vital issues, which she suggests are: “human value and moral dignity,” “freedom,” “ideal humanity,” “education,” and “responsibility.”  

Any peaceful effort to improve dialogue and understanding between distant cultures is worthwhile; ergo, Dr. Carroll’s efforts are commendable. A well intentioned reader might even excuse the selection criteria she used to pick the non-Muslim spokesmen. First, we are told they were all humanists, within Carroll’s refreshing outline of the broad tradition of humanism. In Dr. Carroll’s “words, these thinkers are concerned with basic questions about the nature of human reality, the good human life, the state, and morality. Moreover they reach similar conclusions regarding many of these issues and questions after deliberating about them from within their own traditions and cultural contexts.”  

Understanding then, that these chosen philosophers were selected because they had much in common among themselves and with the thought of Fethullah Gülen, one might wonder how much more meaningful could have been a dialogue between Gülen and other thinkers who were not so similar in outlook. This reviewer would like to have nominated Aristotle, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Karl Marx, John Dewey, W.E.B. Du Bois, Alice Paul, Simone de Beauvoir, Bertrand Russell and Richard Rorty. I would submit these thinkers, not out of any personal affinity, but because the resulting dialogues would have been more emblematic of the kinds of discussion that Dr. Carroll’s selections tended to evade.   

Yet even if Carroll’s dialogues were to be re-conceived to include a more representative selection of thinkers from the “larger humanities” in the non-Muslim world, we would still be left with several more important questions. Would Fethullah Gülen be the right choice to be the spokesperson for Islam? The answer depends upon who is being asked.  For many people, Dr. Carroll included, Gülen is a tolerant, inspiring, and notoriously emotional preacher, a “man of deep spirituality, integrity and compassion.” Carroll’s brief descriptions of Fethullah Gülen fail on several levels. In places, Carroll misses logical opportunities to describe Gülen highly controversial and adversarial relationship with the secular government in Turkey. Apparently, Fethullah Gülen has been outspoken against the secular legal system in Turkey. Such information, in an extended biographical section, would have added needed context for most general readers. Gülen supporters disclaim the accusations, some of which led to an in abstentia trial. But no hint of the controversy, or the fact that Gülen has been a resident of the U.S. since 2000, can be found in my “Uncorrected Advance Reading Copy” of Dr. Carroll’s book. Perhaps the days of posturing U.S. based expatriates as appropriate representatives of mainstream Middle Eastern cultures are behind us?  

A final disclosure might have also been in order, this one relating to the publisher-author-subject relationship. Most readers would not be alarmed to learn that Dr. Carroll’s publisher, The Light, Inc., is mostly known as the publisher of Fethullah Gülen’s own works. This book is aimed at a popular audience, but in more scholarly circles such a disclosure would have been expected, especially if The Light is shown to be under the editorial or financial control of the Gülen organization. 

Inter-cultural dialogue, a most noble pursuit, can be meaningfully carried out at many levels. Dr. B. Jill Carroll attempts to convene a hypothetical conversation among representatives of humanist traditions from vastly differing cultures. While her selection of participants in this dialogue may seem odd, and the topics under consideration overly erudite, yet any honest and peaceful dialogue would be an important step in undoing the arrogance, communications gridlock, and dogmatic polarization which have characterized the past six years of “Middle Eastern” – “Western” relations .

The above review was contributed by: Joe Petrulionis:  Joe Petrulionis reads, writes, and teaches the history of ideas and he emphasizes the political and cultural context in which these philosophical, scientific, and artistic notions emerge. Joe has a recent Masters Degree in History and is in recovery from a previous career and graduate specialty in finance and economics. To read more of Joe's reviews CLICK HERE